The Bermuda Botanical Society (BBS) has been awarded funding from the UK for its woodlands field guide.

The UK Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP), a joint initiative between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DID) in the UK, was launched last year.

Four bids for funding from OTEP were launched from Bermuda, with the BBS bid for its project ?Management Guidelines for Bermuda?s Woodlands: A Practical Field Guide? emerging successful. The project?s aim is to produce a practical field guide for the management of private and publicly owned woodland in Bermuda. The guide will include such topics as habitat definition, typical problems suffered by woodlands, plant propagation, saving damaged trees, plant identification and example schemes.

The field guide will be published as a resource for Government departments. Private landowners will also benefit from the guide, custom-made for Bermuda?s habitats. Government said the guide will give landowners best-practice methods to promote Bermuda?s native biodiversity and eliminate evasive species. According to a Government Press release, the OTEP panel considered the project to be a practical and timely way of advising individuals on the best way to manage Bermuda?s woodlands. It also offered the opportunity to address a number of themes of the Bermuda Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

The guide is expected to be completed by early 2005.